Santa Clara: CAIR expands legal services to include help with immigration

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — A local organization that advocates for rights for Muslim people is expanding its legal services to include immigration services, organization officials announced Nov. 20.

The San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations has provided legal services for more than 20 years to people who face discrimination because of their Muslim identity.

CAIR-SFBA’s new Immigrants’ Rights Program, however, will now allow the organization to offer more legal services, such as low-cost or pro bono legal assistance for citizenship, adjustment of status, family petitions, asylum, Temporary Protected Status, T-Visas, and U-Visas, in addition to Violence Against Women Act self-petitions.

“Given the ways Muslim immigrants have been specifically targeted by discriminatory policies, we believe it is essential to provide access to high quality low-cost immigration legal services to the Muslim community,” CAIR-SFBA Immigrants’ Rights Attorney Brittney Rezaei said in a statement.

The Bay Area chapter’s new program was made possible through a partnership with CAIR’s greater Los Angeles area office. In 2016, CAIR-LA helped with more than 400 immigration applications and saw an increase of 58 percent in naturalization petitions from the previous year.

For more information about the new program or to make an appointment call (408) 986-9874.